OpenAI plans to open an office in Tokyo in April, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the artificial intelligence pioneer begins to build out its international operations. The Japan office will be its first in Asia, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. It will be the third international location after opening offices in London and Dublin last year. OpenAI set off a frenzy of interest in artificial intelligence after unveiling ChatGPT in November 2022. The San Francisco startup has been in talks to raise funding at a valuation of at least 100 billion, Bloomberg reported in December.

The global impact of artificial intelligence is vast. To some extent, it has been completed, and more development is needed. International business growth, AI and global expansion are usually inseparable. The McKinsey Global Institute recently analyzed economic data from the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank. The report claims that by 2030, artificial intelligence can increase the global economy by 16% or about $13 trillion. It can also increase the global gross domestic product by as much as 26%.

Speechmatics has built one of the most accurate speech recognition technology engines in the world. The technology is currently available in 29 languages, either in the cloud or, crucially, on-premises – a critical feature for businesses who do not wish or are unable to share data in the cloud. Speechmatics was recently awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise in the'Innovation' category for 2019. The automatic speech recognition (ASR) market is currently worth $7.5bn and is projected to be worth $21.5bn by 2024. Applications of Speechmatics technology include almost instant transcription of audio files, live subtitling in broadcast, and the conversion of call centre recordings into text.

Bebot is your AI guide based in Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station, the train hub of Japan's capital and home to the world famous Shinkanshen bullet trains, is one of the busiest railway station in the country and many tourists may need help to navigate it. Now they may not fear being lost in transit as Bebot, the AI chatbot concierge, has started working there as a'guide'. Bebot, built by Tokyo-based Bespoke Inc., acts as a personal concierge for travellers. It was launched in April last year, and is already providing services in Narita and Haneda international airports and hotels globally.

Investors and analysts have been expecting Ant to go public sometime in 2018. The Hangzhou-based company last raised $4.5 billion from private investors in April 2016 in a deal that gave it a $60 billion valuation--and its business has since expanded significantly. An IPO "is not a necessity or a priority" right now, said Douglas Feagin, Ant's president of international business, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. Mr. Feagin, an American who was a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker for more than two decades, said he can appreciate the benefits of going public but Ant has other, more pressing, plans to implement. Among Ant's pursuits: expanding Alipay's global footprint within and beyond the 70 countries the payments system is used in, while plumbing for new technology investments globally in things like facial-recognition and machine-learning systems.

Vancouver-based Responsive Capital Management is looking for Asian financial institutions interested in adapting its artificial intelligence to the back end of wealth management. Although Responsive markets itself in public as an AI-driven tool for investing, its business model to date has relied on leasing its technology to other wealth managers to improve their operations. This raises the question of a robo-advisor's true value. Is it the investment decisions, or the user interface and automation of back-office operations? "We want to help wealth managers compete through a better client experience and outcomes," said Davyde Wachell, the company's CEO.